8th Grade Social Studies Sept. 4, 2014 Why do we study history? 8th Grade Social Studies Sept. 4, 2014

What is history? History is the study of people, places, and events in time.

How is history passed? Oral Language Written Language What’s Best? Earliest form of expression Stories passed by word of mouth What’s the Problem? Telephone Game Stories Change as retold Details Lost or Added Written Language Signifier for a civilization Pictographs Symbols or characters that represent words or phases Cave Paintings Alphabets Things get lost or damaged Point of View / Perspective Interpretation What’s Best? Mixture of Both !

Primary vs. Secondary history sources Primary: 1st hand accounts or artifacts Secondary: based on research of primary sources or other secondary sources Both contain bias

What is your opinion of this man?

Examples of Primary Sources US Constitution Abraham Lincoln Quotes Journals of Lewis and Clark Recorded video and audio tapes of 9/11 attacks

Examples of Secondary Sources Textbooks Essays or reviews Almanacs/encyclopedias

Why study history? It tells us Who we are as a people Where we have been Where we are going

History is the story of US History is true stories and adventures History can be biased History has real life heroes History has real villains

History can be a mystery Each new discovery is evidence to help us understand the past. Why did an event happen? What happened to a group of people or a person? Why do we celebrate or remember certain days?

What if History is Before Science or Not Scientific? What if the History is Before Science or Not Scientific? Blamed it on the GODS!!! Example: Thunder was the Gods showing their anger Developed Stories to explain the unexplainable “Creation Myths”

Learn from history Become informed citizens Become better critical thinkers Learn from the mistakes of the past